A couple of weeks ago, I began a series on the Benedictine Rule, as it might be, lived out in ordinary life. Last week, I mentioned that the roots of the rule are a life structured around prayer, Bible study, and work. In a monastery, there’s almost always an opportunity for physical labor by many people. There are also a number of tasks that require intellectual labor. For example, in the Middle Ages, many monks worked in the fields while others copied manuscripts. The key was finding work appropriate for each member of the order. This week, I am focused on Christian action and the work we do day by day in the name of Christ.

One reason for this week’s focus is how Kathy and I spent the last few days. Beginning last Thursday and until yesterday evening, we were in Oaxaca, Mexico. Our first reason for being there was primarily a conference held by a local Presbyterian Church called “MexEd.” MexEd is an annual conference sponsored by churches that participate in what is known as the AMO program in Mexico. A second reason for being in Oaxaca was that this very same church is a leader in what is called “MoviPres,” which involves a movement of indigenous churches to strengthen Presbyterian churches in Mexico.

Feeding Children in Love through AMO

AMO. is an acronym for “Feed My Lambs” because in Romance languages, including Spanish, the verb “amo” means “I love.” The AMO Program is designed to cultivate a classically informed Biblical worldview, Christian mindset, Christian imagination, and Christian conscience in children ages 6-14. The founders of AMO desired to create a curriculum that would restore the heart-to-heart and mind-to-mind relationship between parents and children in the classroom and a unified experience of community love, education, and character formation focused on strengthening families and helping children, many of whom are in poorer countries develop the character and abilities to achieve success in life.

Moving Churches into Action through MoviPres

MoviPres began in the Presbyterian Church of Mexico and is a training vehicle by which local churches, presbyteries, and higher governing bodies in Mexico can be trained to share the gospel and grow. One of the things that first attracted me to MoviPres is that the strategy is very similar to that recommended by Crisis of Discipleship: Renewing the Art of Christian Disciple-Making [1]and embodied in a book that Kathy and I wrote entitled Salt and Light: Every Day Discipleship. [2] When I first read the curriculum produced by MoviPres, I could see that they had designed an excellent strategy for the disciple-making situation in Mexico.

Our church in San Antonio began developing a relationship with The AMO Program many years ago. In recent years, our partners have introduced us to MoviPres. We were in Mexico partially because MoviPres has agreed to help strengthen churches along the border inside the United States in South Texas, and we needed to work out some details concerning how we might go about this.

Four Long Days

On the first day, we toured the lovely city where the conference would be held. Located in the mountains south and east of Mexico City, Oaxaca is part of one of the poorest areas in Mexico. Nevertheless, the city is beautiful, and the climate is lovely at this time of the year. (It was 100° in San Antonio while we were gone and about 77 degrees at the high in the mountains where we were. It rained every afternoon for just a few minutes before evening came when the temperatures were usually around 60 degrees.) We rapidly discovered that the architecture was beautiful, the food was terrific, and the people were friendly and happy to explain their culture and heritage.

The highlight of the first morning was touring the “Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán,” the most famous church in Oaxaca. There is also a lovely Cathedral located in the city’s central plaza. The Santo Domingo church has Roman Catholic heritage, stunning architecture, and dramatic inlaid pillars and statutes. For this part of the day, our hostess was a delightful young woman, Majo, who received a scholarship from Biblicus Mexico, which I will discuss later, and who studied in South Texas, where she also worked and engaged in mission.

The Conference and Meetings

In the late afternoon, we met with our hosts to plan a conference in South Texas sometime this fall or next spring and to work out some details that had become confusing. This meeting, as well as the conference, was held at Amor y Proclamación Presbyterian Church. What a comparison there is between the ancient and lovely architecture of the Catholic churches and the simplicity of Amor y Proclamación, which meets in rented facilities that used to be a nightclub. The people in the church have worked tirelessly to reconfigure the building as a church and educational facility.

 Around 5:00 in the evening, the conference began. Around 100 lay people from all over Mexico, but mainly from the south of Mexico City, attended the meeting. They were there to learn how to start or expand an AMO program in their church and understand their culture better.

There were four kinds of speakers during the conference, which lasted two full days, morning until night:

• Speakers concentrated on the cultural situation in Mexico and much of the world.
• Speakers that concentrated on the theory behind AMO.
• Speakers that gave practical discussions concerning how to begin and operate an AMO program.
• The church pastor who sponsored the mixed event is also the president of MoviPres.

The main speaker, Eric Tucker, is a professor of philosophy in Florida who was a missionary in Mexico for many years. Eric was born in Michigan and raised in Mexico. Throughout his life, he has lived and worked in various parts of Latin America, spending more time in Latin America than in the US. His doctorate is in Intercultural Studies with a minor in Adult Education. He teaches various courses, all related in some way to ethics, including Professional and Healthcare Ethics, Business Administration, World Religions, Organizational Behavior, Leadership, Managing Cultural Diversity, Service Learning, and other Honors College courses. His focus is teaching students to grow in love with learning and develop their unique abilities and calling. He discussed the barriers to transmitting Christianity and basic moral principles in contemporary society, particularly the academic and political culture prevalent in Mexico and Latin America. He stayed in our hotel, and we became friends. He was quite good.

The second speaker is the woman who runs the AMO program not just in Mexico but for most of Latin America and the Caribbean. Francelia Chavez de McReynolds helps with our church’s various ministries in Mexico and works full-time with AMO. She and her husband, Chris, live about half the year in South Texas and half the year in Mexico. Raquel Cahuich, a scholarship recipient from another program our church has sponsored called “Biblicus Mexico,” spoke on the challenges of curriculum design in Mexico. Finally, and most impressively, a group of women in charge of AMO programs all over Mexico spoke about various parts of the challenges in starting and maintaining such a program.

I want to stop momentarily to describe this particular group of speakers further. As I’ve already said, all the speakers were good; some were highly educated and competent. This last group of speakers was, to me, the most impressive. Most of them spoke with few or no notes. Some of the talks were as long as 45 minutes. Each woman was open, frank, informative, highly intelligent, and fluent. I was sitting there most of the time wondering if most American churches could field such a robust speaking group of laypersons! It was, for me, the most inspiring part of the conference.

Our host for the conference is a very unusual and talented person. Trained as a medical doctor, a profession he continues to practice, Rev. Josias Luna took off time in midlife to come to the United States and study theology. Upon his return to Mexico, he planted the church Amor y Proclamación. Rev. Luna and his wife, Elizabeth, introduced their congregation to AMO in 2012. Josias and Elizabeth established the program in Oaxaca and enrolled to become certified AMO trainers in Mexico several years later. Today, they are leaders in the AMO program in Mexico.

The Lunas are a wonderful couple, and they hosted us for dinner the last evening after their exhausting leadership of the conference. The Lunas experienced growth as they emphasized Biblical, Christian education in their family. The couple recruited a team and shepherded its practical implementation in the church. After twelve years of successful discipleship in their family and church, they are on the Amo training faculty, instructing classes to form other Spanish-speaking AMO teachers.

Kathy and Mexico

Through the efforts of my wife, Kathy, we have been able to develop friendships and ministry partners throughout Mexico. She spends endless hours on the telephone and the computer coordinating various ministry opportunities of our church in Mexico. This trip was the beginning of new initiatives and the completion of older mission objectives.

Why I Wrote This

I began this blog discussing Saint Benedict and the structure of monastic life. Contemporary churches often focus on teaching. Pastors spend most of their time teaching. This leads inevitably to the church’s focus on transmitting biblical knowledge and theology. After many years of ministry, I’ve come to the view that the purpose of the church is to embody Christ in a local community. The pastor’s purpose is to draw people into discipleship in the church so that they may reflect Christ in their everyday lives. This inevitably involves a lot of work.

Mission occurs every day, wherever we are and in whatever we choose to do. The question is, “What kind of mission am I doing?” The rhythm of prayer, study, and work is essential as we transmit the love of Christ into the world that so desperately needs it. For many years, I have followed a kind of rule of life that divided my day into prayer, exercise, study, and work. In retirement, I’ve tried to keep roughly the same balance, though I now have more time for exercise than was possible while practicing law or engaged in ministry. The only difference is that I don’t get paid for most of my labor!

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] G. Christopher Scruggs, Crisis of Discipleship: Renewing the Art of Relational Disciple-Making Revised and Expanded version (Richmond Virginia: Living Dialogue, 2024).

[2] G. Christopher and Kathy Scruggs, Salt & Light: Every Day Discipleship (Collierville, TN: Innovo Publishing, 2024).